Joint mortgage non-UK citizen

thaimeister

Hi all,

Wonder if you can help. I bought my house 9 years ago when I was young free & single. Now married with a 3 yo and we're finding the house is not ideal and we're pretty desperate to move anyway (noisy neighbours etc.)

We're now looking to change to a joint mortgage and pretty much have the deposit we'll need set aside. However, the issue is my wife is not a UK citizen and does not yet have an indefinite leave to remain visa, so I'm not sure how difficult (or even possible) it will be to find a lender that will take her into consideration.

Our situation is that she has lived here almost 5 years,initially on a spouse visa which we have now extended twice (2 years FLR each time). We have a child together and she works full-time which I'm hoping will all go in her favour. I contacted my existing lender (RBS) over the phone and was told straight away they wouldn't allow her until she achieves ILR.

I'm going to call a few mortgage brokers to see if they have encountered similar situations but just wondered if anyone else on here had found success with a non-UK spouse joint mortgage application?

Many Thanks

ACG

Funny that you say RBS said no as that was the first lender that spring to mind for me. There are maybe 2-3 lenders who would consider it that I know of. but if you grab a decent broker, based on what you have said I think you will be ok.

thaimeister

To be honest the guy I spoke to at RBS didn't seem interested and I didn't get the chance to explain any of the details. It was just a straight "no we don't do that". I might try to get an appointment in branch or speak to a manager and try again with them

fxyzfxyz

I am British and my partner is a Non EU citizen. We've put in our application to the Halifax and haven't seemed to have any issues so far related to his nationality. Mind you, we haven't been given an offer yet though. Our broker said the Halifax is OK with non EU citizens as long as they've been in the country for 2 years and have permanent employment

thaimeister

Thanks for that.

Another of the brokers came back to me this afternoon. He says he's defo found at least one that will accept us both. Can actually offer us more than I thought if required.

At least we know we can start looking now ��

mungobella

FWIW, my husband and I did this with Nationwide about four years ago. I was the non-UK citizen, on a work visa with about two years left. I seem to remember that the time remaining on the visa was important, but I could be wrong. Good luck!